cubs!

Happy Mother's Day to everyone out there, and especially to our mothers Barb and Claire!

Steve had to work yesterday, so I took off for a drive 'round the park with a friend. We didn't get too far up the road before we ran into this bear.


After a big yawn,


with tongue,


she finally stood up and sauntered away.


We drove all the way out to the east entrance, which just opened on Friday. Apparently we just missed a "750 pound" grizzly that walked through the entrance gate, spooked a moose, and then said moose took off running down the road escape. We can confirm that this happened because a kind visitor showed us his video of exactly what we had missed.

Disappointed, we stopped for fudge and pretzels in Fishing Bridge to lift our mood. All that sugar brought us luck, as we pulled up to a big bear jam near Willow Park. As I snapped a few photos of the grizz I noticed a tiny, tiny ball of fluff next to her. And then a second tiny, tiny ball of fluff.


Be glad there's no sound to this blog, because the shriek I let out shouldn't be repeated. Neither one of us had ever seen grizzly cubs-of-the-year before (cubs born this year), and we were pretty darn excited. They couldn't have weighed more than 16 pounds, and we were able to watch them for several minutes before she took them into the brush and out of sight.




About 5 miles further up the road we ran into another bear jam. This grizzly was feasting away on a carcass that he'd buried.


Take a second look at how huge is head is. Needless to say, we will not be hiking in this area anytime soon.